The long-awaited sequel to the cult classic “Blade Runner,” a 1982 sci-fi thriller, finally hits movie theaters on Friday.

But there is not much that stars Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling can say about “Blade Runner 2049,” for fear of revealing major plot spoilers.

Ford, who reprises his role as an older Rick Deckard, and Gosling as a new ‘blade runner’ Officer K, told Reuters that the film offers a glimpse into the potential impact of a rapidly changing climate and an increasingly isolated society reliant on technology.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: The first film touched upon the future or what they envisaged the world to be. Now we’re 30 years on, what elements does this film address which you think will resonate with audiences today?

Gosling: “Overpopulation, global warming, being isolated by technology.”

Ford: “Social inequity.”

Gosling: “The false narratives we create about large groups of people in order to make ourselves feel better about how awful their circumstances are.”

Ford: “The necessity to have a moral structure into which to pour what’s possible and to make judgments about what we use and what we don’t use.”

Q: How would you say this film pushes forward messages about humanity that weren’t covered in the first one?

Ford: Well I would just quibble with the word ‘message’ because it’s an experiential opportunity because you discover your relationship to the ideas in the context of an emotional geography so I think as an audience, it has an opportunity to engage you in a way that is pretty rare.

Q: How did you go about playing your character with ambiguity as it is not always known who is a human and who is a Replicant?

Ford: I don’t think there’s a style to the acting necessarily. There is so much new information coming at you as a character and as an audience that you just want to be still and make sure that you’re reading this right, that you really know what’s going on so the characters are constantly in the midst of a dilemma that is like drinking out of a gardening hose. There is so much happening to them that it’s close to overwhelming for them.
…

Country star Jason Aldean said Tuesday that he would cancel three shows this week to honor victims of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, in which a gunman opened fire on a crowd at a Las Vegas music festival during the singer’s Sunday show.

Aldean canceled stops in Los Angeles, San Diego and Anaheim, California, as part of his “They Don’t Know Tour.” The tour will resume in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 12 and refunds will be offered for the canceled shows.

“I feel like out of respect for the victims, their families and our fans, it is the right thing to do. It has been an emotional time for everyone involved this week, so we plan to take some time to mourn the ones we have lost and be close with our family and friends,” Aldean said in a statement.

The singer added: “Our first time back onstage will be a very tough and emotional thing for us, but we will all get through it together and honor the people we lost by doing the only thing we know how to do — play our songs for them.”

Aldean was on stage on Sunday night at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival when Stephen Paddock, a retiree armed with multiple assault rifles, strafed the crowd at the concert from a high-rise hotel window, killing 59 people and wounding 527.

Jennifer Lopez, currently in her “Jennifer Lopez: All I Have” residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, also canceled her scheduled shows this week. The performances will be rescheduled for later dates.

“Jennifer is heartbroken that such a senseless tragedy occurred. Her thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” the singer’s representatives said in a statement Tuesday.

Organizers of the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Texas said on Tuesday they would offer refunds to people who no longer want to attend for security concerns after the Las Vegas shooting.

Earlier this week, Warner Brothers said it would scale back Tuesday’s world premiere of sci-fi film Blade Runner 2049 after the Las Vegas tragedy, canceling the red carpet, where stars chat to reporters and pose for photos.

ESPN’s Monday Night Football and ABC’s Monday episode of Dancing With the Stars both opened with a moment of silence for the victims of the tragedy.
…

After visiting the diverse landscapes of Dinosaur National Monument once, national parks traveler Mikah Meyer knew he had to come back.

In addition to the site’s ancient land formations and dinosaur fossils, the massive park — which spreads across the states of Utah and Colorado — is also home to a river canyon made up of unique rock formations. 

During his first visit this past summer, Mikah hiked along “some of the most diverse and expansive views of my entire journey so far,” he said.

“It was incredible. I have never seen a river canyon this close to massive valleys that were shifted upward that looked like giant ski slopes of lush green grass that are also right next to white snowcapped mountains.” 

After a year, traveling to 160 national parks around the country, that landscape was just one of the reasons he found the site so compelling.

Wall of bones

Another reason was the area’s vast deposits of fossilized dinosaur bones, many of which are still visible, embedded in the rocks.

Through a series of exhibits, visitors like Mikah get to see — and feel — just how massive the giant animals were. Examining a huge dinosaur claw, Mikah noted how sharp it felt to the touch.

“That would not feel good if that ripped into you,” he said.

“They found tons and tons of dinosaur bones that are now in museums from New York to D.C. to my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska,” he added.

A river runs through it

After his experiences on land, where he had a bird’s eye view of the panoramic vistas, Mikah returned to the park a couple of months later, to see it from a different angle… rafting on the Green River.

“What really struck me the first time I came to Dinosaur National Monument was these impressive unique rock features. And now to be able to see them up close from the water was incredible,” he said.

“You’ll be rafting along and suddenly you see these layers, and they’re vertical. It looks like something that nature couldn’t have created because it’s perpendicular to what we’re used to seeing the earth layers look like,” he described.

Over the course of several days, he discovered a wide variety of formations to explore. He describes the geology at the intersection of the Green and Yampa Rivers for example, as “particularly awesome.”

Waves of rock

“You can see these kind of pancake-like features where these large maroon and brown boulders are all smashed together,” he noted. But as he continued on his river journey he noticed “a lot more varied geology,” with lighter sandstone formations.

Mikah was particularly intrigued by a series of rock ripples that he saw along the shoreline. He described the sedimentary structures as “deposits of rock that were upturned and now make this curve shape that we see shooting up from the river to the sky.”

Loosey goosey

In addition to the park’s natural beauty and historic artifacts, there was a surprising highlight to Mikah’s river adventure. From the beginning of his journey, he and his tour group were joined by an unlikely fellow traveler… a wild goose that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere…

“I noticed there was this little goose that was hanging out on the beach… and then we got in the boat and we started floating down the river and this goose was swimming right up next to the boat,” Mikah explained.

“About five or 10 minutes later, the goose was still with us,” he said. “So my buddy Tom jokingly said, ‘I think he’s just going to come along for the journey. We should name him. Let’s call him George.’”

George continued to hang out with Mikah and his group for several days. He followed them on water, on hikes, and even settled in with them at their campsite overnight.

“It became very apparent that George the Goose had attached himself to us; thought he was either one of our group or we were his new flock,” Mikah noted. “Wherever we went, George the Goose was going.”

Right up until the very end.

“We loaded up in the van, and we start driving away, and poor George the Goose starts to run after us. And eventually I saw him stop and just kinda look around and I think at that point he realized we had left him.”

“Without a doubt, all of us were touched and moved by George the Goose,” he added.

Dinosaur National Monument is now among Mikah’s top five favorite parks. He wishes the site had an official national park designation so it would attract more visitors.

“It is a National Park Service site, but its official name is Dinosaur National Monument which I’m guessing people see the name and it doesn’t sound as incredible as Rocky Mountain National Park nearby, or Arches National Park that are those big 59 ones that are recognized,” he said.

“It really is a special place that seems to be a hidden gem that I hope other people will get a chance to explore.”

With, or without a goose.

Mikah invites you to follow him on his epic journey by visiting him on his website MikahMeyer.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
…

Country star Jason Aldean says he’s praying for the victims of the Las Vegas shootings, saying his “heart aches” and issuing a rallying cry for Americans to come together.

The singer writes something has “changed” in the world, making it “the kind of place I am afraid to raise my children in.”

“At the end of the day we aren’t Democrats or Republicans, whites or blacks, men or women. We are all humans and we are all Americans and it’s time to start acting like it and stand together as one!”

Aldean was onstage Sunday when a gunman shot at a crowded music festival.

“My heart aches for the victims and their families of this senseless act,” Aldean wrote on Instagram, adding: “Time to come together and stop the hate!”
…

An American television channel plans to air a film about Oscar Pistorius and how he murdered girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, drawing criticism from the family of the former South African track star.

 

Lifetime says “Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer,” which is to premiere on Nov. 11, is told from “the point of view” of Steenkamp and her mother and tells “what allegedly happened” in 2013 when Pistorius shot her.

 

Carl Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympian’s brother, said Tuesday that the film is a “gross misrepresentation of the truth” that reflects the arguments of prosecutors. He said the Pistorius family will take legal action.

 

South Africa’s top appeals court convenes Nov. 3 to hear prosecutors’ arguments that the six-year prison sentence for Pistorius, who was convicted of murder, should be increased.

 
…

U.S. rock legend Tom Petty has died after a cardiac arrest at his Malibu California home. He was 66-years-old.

Petty’s family said he was taken to the hospital early Monday, but could not be revived. They said he died Monday evening “surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends.”

The rock star wrapped his most recent tour last week at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In December, Petty told Rolling Stone that he thought this would be the group’s last tour together. He said, “It’s very likely we’ll keep playing, but will we take on 50 shows in one tour? I don’t think so. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was thinking this might be the last big one.”

“It’s shocking, crushing news,” Petty’s friend and Traveling Wilburys bandmate Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone magazine in a statement. “I thought the world of Tom. He was great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I’ll never forget him.”

Petty rose to fame in the 1970s with his band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They were known for hits such as “American Girl,” “Free Fallin” and “Listen to Her Heart.” The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
…

For several hours Monday, music lovers believed Tom Petty was dead.

Courtney Love, Talib Kweli, Kid Rock, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Stanley and Lin-Manuel Miranda were among scores of fans posting remembrances on Twitter, where Petty was the top worldwide trending topic Monday afternoon. A memorial was scheduled for his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

But the 66-year-old entertainer is still alive, and news outlets that announced his death Monday retracted their stories later Monday. The Walk of Fame tribute was canceled.

The confusion started with CBS News and the Los Angeles Police Department. CBS published Petty’s obituary after tweeting that the LAPD had confirmed his death. The trade paper Variety followed, citing an unnamed source confirming the rocker’s death.

Then the LAPD issued a statement saying it has no information on Petty’s condition and that “initial information was inadvertently provided to some media sources.”

“We apologize for any inconvenience in this reporting,” the department said.

CBS and Variety amended their stories. CBS News also released a statement maintaining that it “reported information obtained officially from the LAPD about Tom Petty.”

“The LAPD later said it was not in a position to confirm information about the singer,” the statement said.

Both CBS and Variety now cite TMZ reporting that says Petty is “clinging to life” after suffering cardiac arrest.

An LAPD spokesman said in an interview Monday that its spokespeople did not respond to any incident involving Petty. Officer Tony Im said he could not rule out that someone in the department spoke to reporters, but said the LAPD has no investigative role in the matter.

Coroner’s officials said Monday they have not received a report of Petty’s death. Fire officials have said they responded to an emergency call for a man experiencing cardiac arrest on the block where Petty lives in Malibu on Sunday night, but could not confirm it was the rocker who was taken to a local hospital.

Petty’s manager did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment Monday.
…

When Alfred Nobel established the literature prize in his name, he perhaps could have benefited from an editor. The terms of his will leave the prize’s exact intentions tantalizingly vague – making the literature award one of the most debated and entertaining of the Nobel Prizes.

The Swedish industrialist said he wanted the prize to recognize “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.”

 

On Thursday, the Swedish Academy will announce whom it considers to have met the criterion of “ideal” for the 2017 laurels.

 

A look at some aspects of the Nobel Prize in Literature:

What is ‘Ideal Direction?’

 

The Swedish Academy hasn’t ever had a consistent view of this, but appears to cycle through concepts.

 

In an article on the Nobel Prize website, academy member Kjell Espmark traced at least seven distinct periods in the 20th century interpretations, ranging from the early years’ “conservative idealism” honoring church and family, through an Everyman period in the 1930s when Sinclair Lewis and Pearl Buck won, and more recently, a determination to award the prize to writers outside Western traditions.

 

Just five countries have accounted for nearly half the literature prizes since 1901: France, the United States, Britain, Germany and Sweden.

 

What counts as literature?

 

In 2015 and 2016, the award went to writers outside the conventional conception of “literature” as novels and poetry. Svetlana Alexievich’s books are artistic sociopolitical reportage, and Bob Dylan’s lyrics arguably have more power as song than on the page.

 

If the academy is determined to be adventurous, it could find other forms of art to consider as literature.

 

Graphic novels, for example, arguably have built up the moral weight and imaginative power to be considered literature that goes beyond entertainment.

 

A Nobel prize for graphic novels “doesn’t seem unreasonable at all,” Gabriel Winslow-Yost, an editor at the New York Review of Books, told The Associated Press.

 

Like Alexievich, “some of the best of the past couple of generations of American cartoonists have been especially concerned with the effects of large-scale political forces on particular individual lives; that’s true of Art Spielgelman, true of (Chris) Ware, true of Dan Clowes,” he said.

 

And if Dylan’s song lyrics count as literature, is there a case to be made for opera librettos?

 

Stephen Wadsworth, director of opera studies at the Juilliard School and author of one libretto, said he could envision the prize going to an author whose work had been adapted for opera, noting laureate Maurice Maeterlinck’s play, “Pelléas and Mélisande,” was the basis for Debussy’s famous opera.

 

Aside from that “there are probably a few librettists who would tell you that they should get Nobel prizes. But they would be wrong,” he said.

 

The presumed favorites

 

Kenyan novelist, playwright and essayist Ngugi wa Thiong’o leads the speculation at many bookmakers, with perennial favorite Haruki Murakami behind by a nose.

 

Another name that surfaces year after year may find her chances marred by popularity. “We’ve had to cut Margaret Atwood’s odds … following ‘The Handmaid’s Tale”s Emmy win last week,” Alex Apati, a spokesman for Britain’s Ladbroke’s betting house, said in an email.

 

In any case, setting Nobel odds appears to be less rigorous than assessing sports teams’ prospects, relying on the wisdom of the crowd rather than deep reading.

 

“While we don’t employ someone specifically to work on pricing up this market, between them the traders keep a close eye on things,” Apati said.

 

Amos Oz, Ismail Kadare, Adonis and Don de Lillo also are regarded as strong contenders, according to the odds.

Outliers: Trump?

Bookmakers are offering potentially lucrative bets upwards of 1000-to-1 on Kanye West and President Donald Trump. One might make a credible argument for West – metrical complexity and inventive rhymes constitute a kind of poetry.

 

But Trump’s prose rarely rises above the entertainingly pedestrian – and it’s unclear whether the books are his work or the production of ghostwriters.
…

After visiting the diverse landscapes of Dinosaur National Monument once, national parks traveler Mikah Meyer knew he had to come back. In addition to the site’s ancient land formations and dinosaur fossils, the massive park — which stretches across two states — is also home to a river canyon made up of unique rock formations. Mikah experienced them all and shared with VOA’s Julie Taboh why the site is now among his top five favorites.
…

American rap artist Macklemore will perform a gay anthem at a rugby league final in Sydney on Sunday, thanks to the sport’s officials rejecting pressure from opponents of same-sex marriage as Australia votes on liberalizing its marriage laws.

Macklemore will perform the hit song Same Love before more than 80,000 fans of a sport traditionally associated with macho values as the North Queensland Cowboys take on the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League Grand Final.

NRL bosses resisted pressure last week to stop the song despite a petition signed by just more than 7,000 people calling for the performance to be banned.

Song No. 1 on Australian iTunes

Instead, the song rose to No. 1 on the Australian iTunes chart where it remained ahead of the match Sunday.

Macklemore pledged Friday to donate proceeds from the Australian sales of the song to help the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage.

After becoming the third major American celebrity to weigh in on the debate, the singer from Seattle, Washington, said music had the power to help people talk about the issue.

“I want to donate my portion of the proceeds from Same Love that I get off of that record here in Australia to voting YES,” Macklemore said in a Channel Nine interview posted on his twitter feed Saturday.

Voting underway

Australians began voting last month in a non-binding poll, conducted by mail, to inform the government on whether to become the 25th nation to permit same-sex marriage. The results of the poll will be declared Nov. 15.

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman said he was surprised Australia didn’t have marriage equality yet, in an interview with NewsLtd’s online service news.com.au published Saturday.

U.S. pop star Meghan Trainor entered the fray in August after her image was used without her permission to urge Australians to vote against legalizing same-sex marriage.

“I support marriage equality. Someone in Australia is illegally using my picture for a campaign against marriage equality. So wrong. Not okay,” Trainor tweeted.

The debate has divided the nation of 24 million people along religious and generational lines and at times has threatened to turn nasty, prompting parliament to strengthen laws preventing hate-speech.
…

The Invictus Games for wounded veterans came to a close Saturday with a rousing ceremony featuring stars such as Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams, though some of the attention focused on Britain’s Prince Harry and his girlfriend, American actress Meghan Markle. 

The prince, a veteran of service in Afghanistan, created the Paralympic-style games as a way to inspire soldiers toward recovery. About 550 competitors from 17 countries competed in 12 sports over the last week.

Harry and Markle made their first public appearance together at the event earlier in the week.  

At the closing ceremony, Harry sat beside the wife of Canada’s prime minister in the stands while Markle sat in a luxury box with her mother. Harry later joined her in the luxury box as Springsteen performed. Harry gave a smiling Markle a kiss on the cheek at one point. The 36-year-old actress known for her portrayal of a paralegal in the television show Suits recently told Vanity Fair they’re in love. 

The seven days of inspirational athletic performances closed in spectacular fashion as Springsteen sang three songs, including his classic Dancing in the Dark, before joining Adams on Cuts Like a Knife.

Harry paid tribute to the athletes in his closing speech, saying, “Our world needs your dedication and passion like never before.”

“And you never know, this may just be the missing piece of the puzzle to help you regain that satisfaction of serving others once again,” he added.

About 550 competitors from 17 countries competed in 12 sports over the last week. This is the third Invictus Games. They are in Sydney next year. 
…